One week ago was the earthquake that rocked southwest China. The severity of this disaster is now better understood as there are some 220,000+ people injured and 33,000+ dead. To put that in perspective, this death toll, when all is said and done, will be 10 times that of the September 11th World Trade Center attacks. Most of the dead are school children as it occurred in the middle of the afternoon and the largest buildings in this area of China are schools. Complete communities were leveled from the quake as well. On Sunday an aftershock registering a 5.9, started a landslide and buried at least 200 rescue workers. The pictures attached are from the MSN website. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24690053 
It is now considered the worst quake in China in 59 years and they are saying it registered a 7.9.
Today, marked the one week anniversary and at 2:28 PM local time here in Shanghai. The complete city, and I believe country, came to a stand still in honor of the dead and the disaster. This is a country of 1.3 billion people and Shanghai is a city of 18 million people...cars stopped on the freeway, people stopped on the sidewalk, etc. I witnessed this from my office window which peers down over an elevated highway it was like time was frozen for 3 minutes or so.
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For those of you that are thinking of us, thanks and we appreciate your concern and emails. We are fine here in Shanghai and life progresses as normal. We had an awesome weekend for weather as it is about 80 degrees here now and time to visit the swimming pool. All I can say is....for those of you with children, take time to enjoy them.
Until next time...
